Karl Gordon Henize

Notable people · Aviation Space · Science Engineering · Military

Karl Gordon Henize

Cincinnati-born astronomer who catalogued hundreds of emission-line stars and nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds, waited 18 years as a NASA scientist-astronaut to fly on Challenger in 1985, and died on Mount Everest in 1993.

Born October 17, 1926, Cincinnati
Died October 5, 1993, Mount Everest (north side, after reaching about 21,000-22,000 feet)

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: October 17, 1926, Cincinnati (Hamilton County) source
Died: October 5, 1993, Mount Everest (north side, after reaching about 21,000-22,000 feet) source
Buried: On Mount Everest, near the Changtse Glacier source
Also known as: Karl Henize, Karl G. Henize
Known as: Aviation Space, Science Engineering, Military

Life story

Karl Henize was born in Cincinnati in 1926, grew up on a small dairy farm outside the city, and went to school in Plainville and Mariemont in Hamilton County, where he built his own telescopes. After Navy V-12 training in the Second World War he took degrees in mathematics and astronomy at the University of Virginia and a doctorate at Michigan in 1954. From South Africa he surveyed the southern sky for hydrogen-emission stars and nebulae, and his 1956 catalogues of the Magellanic Clouds gave astronomers the 'Henize' catalogue numbers, such as Henize 70. He ran satellite-tracking stations for the Smithsonian and taught at Northwestern before NASA, having dropped its age limit, took him as a scientist-astronaut in 1967 at 40. He finally flew at 58 as a mission specialist on the Spacelab 2 flight of Challenger (STS-51-F) in 1985, which reached orbit despite an engine shutdown during launch. In October 1993, while testing a NASA radiation counter on a British expedition to Everest, he died of high-altitude pulmonary edema and was buried on the mountain.

Ohio ties

Cincinnati (1926)
birthplace; grew up on a small dairy farm outside the city Hamilton County · source
Plainville and Mariemont
primary and secondary schools; listed as Mariemont High School class of 1945, though he left to enlist in the Navy Hamilton County · source
Granville (Denison University)
Navy V-12 College Training Program student Licking County · source

Timeline

1926 Born in Cincinnati on 17 October. source
1945 Listed with Mariemont High School's class of 1945, but did not graduate because he enlisted in the Navy. source
1947 Received a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Virginia, followed by an M.A. in astronomy in 1948. source
1948 Began three years as University of Michigan observer at the Lamont-Hussey Observatory in Bloemfontein, South Africa, running an objective-prism survey of the southern sky for hydrogen-emission stars and nebulae. source
1954 Earned his Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Michigan and became a Carnegie postdoctoral fellow at Mount Wilson Observatory. source
1956 Published 'Catalogues of H-alpha-Emission Stars and Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds' in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement: 236 emission-line stars and 532 emission nebulae. source
1956 Became senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in charge of a global network of 12 photographic satellite-tracking stations until 1959. source
1959 Joined Northwestern University's astronomy department as associate professor; full professor in 1964. source
1966 His experiment S-013 photographed ultraviolet stellar spectra on Gemini 10, 11 and 12 (1966); he was later principal investigator of Skylab experiment S-019. source
1967 Selected by NASA as a scientist-astronaut in August, after the agency dropped the age limit that had kept him out of the first scientist group. source
1971 Served on the support crew and as capsule communicator for Apollo 15, and later on the support crews for Skylab 2, 3 and 4. source
1985 On 12 July Challenger's first launch attempt for STS-51-F stopped at T-3 seconds when a coolant valve failed on one main engine. source
1985 Flew as mission specialist on STS-51-F (Spacelab 2), 29 July to 6 August, the first pallet-only Spacelab mission, operating the Instrument Pointing System and the robot arm. source
1986 Left the astronaut office to become senior scientist in the Space Sciences Branch at Johnson Space Center, studying space debris. source
1993 Died of high-altitude pulmonary edema on 5 October on Mount Everest, where he was testing a NASA Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter for radiation measurement; that instrument now flies on the International Space Station. source

Stories

The farm boy with the homemade telescopes

Henize grew up on a small dairy farm outside Cincinnati and went to school in Plainville and Mariemont. His boyhood heroes were Buck Rogers and Sir Edmund Hillary. He built his own telescopes, read every astronomy book in his school library, and earned exactly one Boy Scout merit badge, in astronomy. He left Mariemont High School without graduating to enlist in the Navy in the Second World War, and the Navy's V-12 programme sent him first to Denison University in Granville.

Source

Too old, then not

When NASA chose its first group of scientist-astronauts, Henize applied and was turned down because he was over the age limit of 35. He was 37. NASA dropped the limit for the second group, and he was selected in August 1967 at 40. He spent the next 18 years supporting other people's flights, including Apollo 15 and all three Skylab crews. When he finally launched on STS-51-F in July 1985 he was 58.

Source

Abort to orbit

Henize's only spaceflight nearly ended before it began. A first launch attempt on 12 July 1985 shut down three seconds before liftoff. On 29 July, three and a half minutes into the climb, a sensor in Challenger's centre engine failed, and when a second sensor failed about two minutes later the engine shut down. It was the only in-flight main-engine failure of the shuttle programme. Challenger flew an 'abort to orbit' into a lower orbit than planned, yet the mission went on to be extended by 17 orbits for extra payload work.

Source

The last climb

After leaving the astronaut corps Henize, a keen mountaineer, joined a 1993 British expedition to the north side of Mount Everest. He went partly on NASA business, on leave from the agency, to test a Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter, a radiation detector. On the way up he developed high-altitude pulmonary edema and died early on 5 October 1993, after returning from advanced base camp at about 22,000 feet. He was buried on the mountain, near the Changtse Glacier.

Source

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Mariemont High School, 1 Warrior Way (current campus of the school Henize attended)
Mariemont Hamilton County · source
Henize's grave on Mount Everest, near the Changtse Glacier (unknown)
Mount Everest source

Ohio places

Where Karl Gordon Henize was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Cincinnati, Hamilton County Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Connected: Cincinnati, Hamilton County Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Connected: Plainville and Mariemont, Hamilton County Hamilton County
Connected: Granville, Licking County Granville · Licking County

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

NASA Biographical Data: Karl G. Henize (Ph.D.), NASA astronaut (deceased) 2007, NASA Johnson Space Center
Henize, K. G., 'Catalogues of H-alpha-Emission Stars and Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds', Astrophysical Journal Supplement 2: 315 (scan) 1956, NASA Astrophysics Data System
STS-51F (Spacelab 2) press kit 1985, NASA

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

US Astronaut Karl Henize ‎portrait
Public domain
A portrait of astronaut Karl G. Henize, taken the year of his selection.
Public domain
Discussing the S-13, Ultraviolet Astronomical Camera Experiment, during the postflight experiments briefing at...
Public domain
These eleven civilian scientists were assigned on July 26, 1967, to begin training for astronaut positions wit...
Public domain
The seven crew members for the Space Shuttle STS-51F/Spacelab 2 mission take a pause from a KSC training sessi...
Public domain
The seven crewmembers for STS 51-F/Spacelab 2 pose for photographers following their pre-flight press conferen...
Public domain
Mission Operations Director George W.S. Abbey, right, shakes hands with Astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton, as the ...
Public domain
The crew assigned to the STS-51F mission included (kneeling left to right) Gordon Fullerton, commander; and Ro...
Public domain
Crew portrait with sunglasses. C. Gordon Fullerton's head is at center. Others (bottom,l.-r.) are Roy D. Bridg...
Public domain
Karl Henize, STS-51F mission specialist, creates frothy, fizzing Pepsi soda balls during the Carbonated Bevera...
Public domain
Karl Henize, STS-51F mission specialist, drinks from a Pepsi can on the mid-deck of space shuttle Challenger
Public domain
This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the young planetary nebula Henize 3-401. Hub...
Public domain